


Cornflower Blue

by riseofthefallenone



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Confessions, Getting Together, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, M/M, Pining, Sam puts up with so much, or rather... they WILL get together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26037250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riseofthefallenone/pseuds/riseofthefallenone
Summary: What are you supposed to do when a cough turns out to be a Witch's curse, and the angel that might know what it is -might know how to fix it- won't answer your calls?
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 26
Kudos: 491





	Cornflower Blue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a little ficlet thing that I did in a Skype chat with a friend because I got a bit inspired when talking about some pet peeves of Hanahaki Disease in association to SpideyPool. 
> 
> Please note that this ficlet is not quite up to my usual detailed writing. This is more a look at how a lot of my fics get started. Normally I take something like this and just expand upon it with details, world building, backstory, etc. Something like Burden, the 200k+ beast that it is, came from something as small and simple as this. 
> 
> I did clean it up a bit so it makes more sense and isn't just "so this happened and then this happened". I do have SOME pride lol 
> 
> Please enjoy and thank you for reading! ♥

_[From the Wiki of Fictional Diseases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_diseases#:~:text=Hanahaki%20Disease%20\(%E8%8A%B1%E5%90%90%E3%81%8D%E7%97%85,render%20breathing%20impossible%20if%20left):_

_Hanahaki Disease is a fictional disease where the victim of unrequited or one-sided love begins to vomit or cough up the petals and flowers of a flowering plant growing in their lungs, which will eventually grow large enough to render breathing impossible if left untreated._

_There is no set time for how long this disease lasts but it may last from 2 weeks to 3 months until the victim dies unless the feelings are returned or the plants are surgically removed. There is also no set flower that blossoms in the lungs but it may be the enamoured’s favourite flower or favourite colour._

_Hanahaki can be cured through surgical removal of the plants' roots, but this excision also has the effect of removing the patient's capacity for romantic love. It may also erase the patient’s feelings for and memories of the enamoured (depending upon the writer's choice). It can also be cured by the reciprocation of the victim's feelings. These feelings cannot be feelings of friendship but must be feelings of genuine love. The victim may also develop Hanahaki Disease if they believe the love to be one-sided but once the enamoured returns the feelings, they will be cured._

* * *

The Witch they gank is screaming in an unknown language right up to her dying breath. Nothing immediately comes from it, so Dean and Sam make the rookie mistake of assuming that the hunt is successful and they managed to finish it without either of them getting cursed. They keep the spell components and stuff they can probably reuse, but the rest they burn with the body of the Witch.

On their way back to the bunker, Dean starts to feel a bit of a tickle in his chest. He clears his throat and thinks nothing of it. Why should he? They're Human. It's entirely possible for him to get sick. Especially when he doesn't have the best diet or sleep schedule to start with, and his self-care habits are crap at the best of times.

Within a day, he starts coughing.

It gets worse and worse over the course of the coming weeks. Deep, bone rattling coughs that sound like he's trying to hack out a lung. Sometimes they get so bad that he throws up. And yet, Dean refuses to go to the doctor. He's sure that this is something that will pass. It's just a cold and he'll be fine once he gets some rest.

That doesn't stop Sam from giving him worried looks and buying out the local pharmacy of every cough suppressant medicine they have. He tracks it too - at first, mentally, and then in a journal. The frequency of the coughing and the duration. He's too paranoid. Can't shake the idea that this isn't normal. 

During week two, Sam starts trying to get a hold of Cas. First by text message, and then by praying as he starts to get desperate. When he's met with radio silence on all ends, he starts reaching out to their few friends - anyone who _might_ have some kind of contact with Cas - just to pass on the message that the Winchesters need him should he show up. 

It's a long shot, but hopefully Cas will come back to this world sooner rather than later. Last Sam knew, he was on some kind of Heaven business. Prayer may reach him, but he might not be able to leave whatever the hell he's doing.

And then week three hits and the first petals come up. They're a bright, brilliant blue and slimy with bile; long and tapering from thin to a wider, heart shaped end. Dean's first instinct is to hide them from Sam because he doesn't want him to worry, but it's hard when Sam is intent on documenting everything for when they finally go to an actual doctor.

But the petals mean this isn't normal. Who coughs up _flowers_ ? Dean's pretty sure they would have learned about a sickness like this at some point in his life. Which means this isn't natural. This is _supernatural_ and that Witch cursed him with her dying breath.

As soon as Sam figures that out, he devotes all his time to scouring the library for any information - any _hint_ \- he can find about this curse. But he's coming up empty on that front and Dean gets progressively worse with every passing day. Soon, whole flowers are coming up with his coughs and vomit. Breathing normally is getting harder and harder. Lungs aching, throat burning.

And Cas is still very much M.I.A.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

When Castiel finally does comes back to Earth, touching down elsewhere because he figures it would be best to turn up with pie and beer to apologize for his long absence and turning off his prayer radio to focus on what he was doing. As soon as he's back in a service zone, his phone starts going off like crazy. Message after message coming in.

The one that catches his attention the most - before he even has a chance to look through the majority of them - is Sam's latest text: _Dean is dying._

Castiel bamfs straight to the bunker because nothing else matters now. Not even his self-hatred because he should have just listened to Sam's first prayers. The ones where he was worried about Dean's cough and asking so politely if he could stop by to heal him. Castiel hates that he had been _annoyed_ by that. He's more than a tool to fight for them; to heal them. He figured it was just a cold and ignored all incoming prayers after that. Now he could lose Dean and it's _his_ fault.

Sam is pouring over some books in the library when he arrives. Dean is in a chair nearby, a bucket held between his hands as he coughs into it, spitting flowers and petals from his lips. Absently, Castiel identifies them as _cornflowers_ , but his heart sinks when he recognizes the curse immediately.

“Hanahaki."

Sam has no idea what that is, but he already has tears in his eyes. “How do we stop it? Cas, he’s going to suffocate at this rate.”

Castiel explains to them what it is, in layman's terms because they don't have the luxury of time. Not if Dean is already this far along. 

Dean starts swearing between his coughing fits. How much pain must he be in? His lungs are knotted with roots. Castiel can see it and he knows that Dean doesn't have long. A few days at most before the flowers take over his lungs completely. Even if they find a way to help him breathe to extend his chances of finding a cure, the plant will feed on his body until he can no longer sustain it.

“Can you fix this?” Sam sounds desperate.

Castiel wishes he had the answer he wants. “Magic like this is powerful. I could help, but I wouldn’t be able to make it as if he never had it. My powers could remove the roots, but it would have the same result as removing them surgically." He feels like his heart is breaking as he meets Dean's eyes. "Whoever you're in love with… You would never be able to love them again. You might never be able to _love_ again. I can't tell which strain of the disease you were cursed with.”

Dean looks horrified at that and he shakes his head, stopping only to hack up another few flowers into the bucket.

“Dean.” Sam is at his side in an instant, rubbing soothing circles into his back. He leans down, voice a pointless whisper because Castiel can hear him clear as a bell. “You need to tell him.”

Dean shakes his head harder and he pushes Sam away with one hand, the other clutching at the bucket.

Castiel feels shattered and wounded, but still he has to fix this. He has to do _something_. “You know who it is, Sam? I can go get them if you tell me -”

Dean gives a painful gasp and shakes his head again. He grabs at Sam, eyes wide and pleading as he manages to wheeze a quiet; " _No_."

Fury fills Sam's face. “You’d rather _die_ than-”

Dean cuts him off with a nod and a violent cough that has him doubling over the bucket again.

Castiel can't stand seeing him like this. He comes forward to kneel at Dean's feet, putting a careful hand on his knee. “I know you like your privacy and your secrets, Dean, but please. Let us help you.”

There's a petal stuck to his bottom lip when he finally looks up. His eyes are filled with such sadness and regret. There's affection there too, and Dean's hand falls from the bucket to cover Castiel's. All it takes is one squeeze and it all makes sense.

Castiel knows in an instant what Sam wanted Dean to tell him. He's had his hopes, but he never dared to _dream_. 

“Hanahaki is a corruption of love. It turns those feelings into a blight on the unrequited." Castiel reaches up with his other hand, brushing the petal from Dean's lips before cupping his cheek. "Dean - do you really believe I don’t love you?”

And Dean’s eyes go wide. The coughing stops, just for a moment, before it starts up against worse than ever. Violent, body quaking, hacking coughs. This time, there’s blood mixed in with the petals and flowers.

Sam's panic is rising, but Castiel knows he can fix this. He rests his forehead against the top of Dean’s head and whispers all the reasons he loves him; reminds him of all the things he’s done because of the _love_ he has for him. He's not going to make the mistake of not telling Dean how he feels. Not again. Not if it risks losing him forever.

By the end of the coughing fit, the bucket is overflowing with bloody flowers. But, miraculously, Dean is able to take his first deep breath in weeks. He swallows air, deep and rattling and _so good_ in between mouthfuls of flowers.

Castiel presses his hand to Dean’s chest, reaching out with his grace to feel his lungs. “It’s clearing up. You're coughing out the disease on your own.”

“Because it’s not unrequited.” Sam sounds amazed, yet happy. He drops to a squat next to them, smiling in relief. “Does it really clear up this fast?”

“No. The roots will take a while to die and be expelled from the body, but he’ll have an easier time to breathe now.” Castiel stands up and Dean grabs his hand, holding on tightly as he spits a mouthful of blood into the bucket.

“Where’re - _cough_ \- you going?” His voice is raspy, his throat probably damaged from all of this. Castiel will heal him of it when it's safe for him to do so without affecting the cursed disease.

“I thought you might want a glass of water.”

“I think I can take care of that.” Sam stands up, stopping only to squeeze Dean's shoulder. “You two - uh - I guess you’ve got some stuff to talk about."

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Before leaving the room, Sam stops to look back. He takes in how Dean and Cas are looking at each other - warm and soft and sappy. It's something that he's used to seeing from the outside and he shakes his head at it. 

How these two idiots didn’t figure out they were in love with each other sooner is beyond him.

**END**


End file.
